Time Flies

So much has happened in so little time...the days just seem to keep flying by. This year has started out great and our little family is making some big strides.

This was the big birthday month. Jackson turned 3 and I turned 32. Yes, I'm not ashamed and I'll admit my age...it is what it is and I certainly don't feel 32 but I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone else. Ray and I decided that we'd let our boys have a BIG birthday party with all their friends every other year so Jackson just had a quiet birthday at home this year with family and Kaden will get a BIG birthday party and then Jackson will get a BIG party next year and Kaden will have a quiet birthday with family, etc. I think Evan and Jackson will have their BIG parties in the same years so I have 3 months in between trying to plan for both of them. Jackson's still young enough that I don't think he really cares who's there...just that it's his birthday, he gets presents, and has a cake. Here's some pictures of his 3rd birthday:

The decorations...


The cake...

Blowing out the candles!

Jackson followed in the footsteps of his older brother and finally decided that he wanted to be a "big boy" and we are happy to say that he is now fully potty-trained, at least during the daytime and it is absolutely wonder only having 1 child in diapers. I now know why everyone says that the best day of their life is when their last child is potty-trained...I can't wait for Evan to be potty-trained and no more diapers! Getting there took a lot of this...

Kaden had Red Ribbon Week at school where they talk about drugs and learn all the harmful things that drugs can do to their bodies. They got to dress up differently each day of the week such as wear your favorite sock, wear school colors, etc. and his favorite day was the crazy hair-do day! Of course, we had to have red and black because those are the Star Wars colors and as usual, little brother wanted in on the fun too. Once the colors were in Jackson's hair...all he wanted to do the rest of the day was get them out. Go figure!

Although it seems like it's been very busy, I can't think of much else to write about. Kaden is still loving school and will be the big "6" in a couple of weeks, Jackson is 3 and did I already mention he's potty-trained (yeah, we're pretty excited about it if you can't tell), and Evan is almost 10 months. He's not crawling yet...maybe because he's almost 23 lbs. and is usually in the 90-95th percentile for height so I think it's going to be a while before he can build up those arm muscles enough to heave his heavy body off the ground. I know that I should enjoy his relative immobility because once he's moving...I'm going to be running around like crazy!

I just thought this picture was funny...sometimes you just catch those funny moments

This month is the second parent/teacher conference at Kaden's school. I am so proud of our sweet Kaden. He got the highest grades possible for the second time with "Excellent" ratings for all of his behavior skills. Mrs. McGarry always has the best things to say about him and I'm so glad that he loves school and loves learning and I hope he continues to do so for the rest of his life. We're so proud of you Kaden and are so glad you're our sweet little boy and such an amazing example to your little brothers!

We were driving to Aunt Pam and Uncle Reed's house for dinner this evening and when I turned around to check on the boys...this is what I saw. Ray and I both thought this picture of Kaden was hilarious...he looks way to mature for an almost 6-year-old!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I always love reading people's blogs when they post the funny things their kids say and I always tell myself that I need to do that down the road I can remember the funny things my kids say. Well, I'm finally doing it.

Today at lunch, Kaden told me that one of the kids in his class has a stepmom and a stepdad. He asked me what a stepmom was. So, as bluntly and as gently as I could, I explained to him that if I died and daddy got married to someone else then that woman would be his stepmom or if daddy died and I got married to someone else then that man would be his stepdad. I also assured him that neither daddy or I plan to die or remarry anyone else. His response was something to the effect of, "My kids are going to have a stepmom." I said, "Really, you want your kids to have a stepmom? I don't think I want my kids to have a stepmom, why do you?" He replied, "Because I like both Mary and Lacey."

Mary and Lacey are a couple of his female classmates at school. Talk about quick reasoning skills! My initial reaction was shock, laughter, and now I'm wondering if I should be worried more than anything!

Finally!

Ok...so I know I lied on my last post but better late than never, right? It's been a whirlwind from Thankgiving through New Year's to say the least. Settle down and get comfortable because this is going to be a long post!

Thanksgiving - We had a very small and quiet Thanksgiving at our house this year. My mom came down so it was just her and our little family. Dinner was delicious (thanks mom!) and over the course of the week, I ate the entire apple pie pretty much by myself and it was delicious. We also got our tree, inside Christmas decorations and outside lights up and I have to admit, our house was very cozy and ready for Christmas. After Thanksgiving, it was back to work for a few weeks.

December - One of the highlights for me was to go to warm and sunny Orlando for training. My training was held at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center and it was beautiful...I've made it a goal that we are going to take our kids there someday and it's not too far from Disneyland. Besides the long daytime trainings, I had a great time just going back to my room and relaxing and sleeping through the night without the baby monitor next to my bed. Although I did miss my kids, it was nice to have some time to read and just relax. Both Ray and I thought that December would be a relatively "quiet" month at work (as it usually is) it was unusually and ridiculously BUSY clear through December 31st. With Ray's company trying to transition itself to Adobe and don't even ask me why I was so busy at work...it was hectic right up until our holiday vacations started on December 23rd. All I can say is thank goodness for online shopping and free shipping!

But, we were both able to take a lot of time off, basically from Christmas Eve through January 4th (minus about 4 hours I had to go into the office to meet a 12/31 filing deadline). Ray's company completely shuts down between Christmas and New Year's and I had vacation time that I had to use by 12/31 or I would have ended up losing it. So, we were forced into an 11-day vacation...and it was great! We didn't do much except spend a lot of time together and Ray and I took the kids to daycare for 1 day and did our annual "Kami & Ray" day together.

We went to the ward Christmas party and both Kaden and Jackson were so excited for Santa, Jackson said he was going to kiss Santa. But, when Santa finally came, Jackson wouldn't go anywhere near him so Kaden was the only one that sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted. Judging by the second picture, I think even Kaden was a little freaked out by Santa or maybe Santa had really bad breath!

Being able to be home with the boys on Christmas Eve and just spend a lazy day together was great. My mom and dad came down to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with us so we had a nice dinner together, watched a movie about Jesus' birth, and then let the boys open one Christmas present. They were so excited for Christmas and I think Ray and I were just as excited, maybe more. We got them off to bed as early as we could but made sure to leave the cookies and milk for Santa. Once the boys were in bed, Santa was busy doing his thing and kept thinking that he heard the boys sneaking out of their rooms, but they were fast asleep. Christmas morning, Evan woke up at his usual 6 a.m. but Kaden and Jackson were still asleep but around 7, they came out. Kaden came out first and then went into Jackson's room saying, "Jackson, wake up, it's Christmas morning!" Then they hurried downstairs and I can't even describe their excitement. After taking it all in, Kaden went over and said, "Mom, Santa ate the cookies, they're gone!" To say the least, we had a great day and the kids were excited all day and we stayed in our PJs all day and played and ate and relaxed...it was WONDERFUL. Our family present from Santa was a Wii with Lego Star Wars for Kaden, Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Guitar Hero World Tour with 2 guitars, the drums, and the microphone.

I don't have any pictures of Christmas to share, it was all that I could do to get it on the camcorder. Some of the other highlights of our Christmas / New Year's holiday were:

1. The day Ray and I spent together, going to the new Oquirrh Hills Temple and then doing popcorn and a movie at the house WITHOUT kids!

2. Playing Wii until we were exhausted and rocking out with my sister's family on New Year's night.

3. Eating delicious food at P.F. Chang's on New Year's day.

4. Going to dinner and the 3-D version of Avatar with friends and NO kids (are you sensing and theme here?)

5. Spending each day with my family and not having to worry about work, school, homework, getting ready for Christmas, having breakfast together, playing Wii together, and staying in our pajamas all day at least 3 times during the break.

6. Taking Kaden to pick out toys for the Christmas room at the stake house and helping him to start to understand that Christmas is about giving, not just about getting.

Although I don't have any great holiday pictures, I do have some that I wanted to share since I haven't posted for so long. I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and someday, I vow to send a Christmas card but it's extremely difficult to get 3 boys together, looking good, and smiling at the same time but we loved receiving everyone else's cards and we are so thankful for our friends and family and all that they do for our family.

Our sweet Kaden (1/5/10)

Our sassy Jackson ("Jacksie" - 1/5/10)

Sweet baby Evan ("Evee" - 1/5/10)

Mom and Evan (1/5/10)

Our Sweet Boys (see any resemblance? - 1/5/10)

Jackson thought he was pretty neat sitting in Evan's bouncy toy (12/23/09)

Evan during his favorite time of the day - tub time! (11/26/09)

Stay Tuned....

I just had to get the Thanksgiving theme off my blog! I'm so far behind...I have committed to update for December so please come back and visit the site this week...I promise it will be updated!

Our Halloween

Well, my least favorite holiday of the year has once again come and gone and now we can look forward to my favorite holiday...Christmas. I really wish I could be more excited about Halloween and be the kind of mom that dresses up with my kids and guys a lot of decorations to make our house look REALLY spooky like some of our neighbors do but I'm just not that into it. But, I allow my kids to get really excited about it and we made plenty of Halloween cupcakes to take to friends and eat on family night, we decorated the house and put up the pumpkin Halloween lights and of course, we decorated the pumpkins.

I am so impressed with myself that I did one of the pumpkins entirely by myself! We got an electric pumpkin carving knife and it was much easier. Also, I'm glad Kaden FINALLY got to be Darth Vadar for Halloween...he's been waiting for 2 years now so he could finally fit into the costume. Enjoy the pictures of our Halloween adventure for 2009!

We started with this...compliments of Debbie at daycare:

Kaden's Halloween graham cracker house

Jackson's Halloween graham cracker house

The Sunday before Halloween we did this for family night:

Love the look on his face (but he still wouldn't touch the goo!)

He did a great job scraping all by himself

A few days before Halloween we did this:

Kaden's pumpkin (didn't turn out like it was supposed to so we improvised)

Jackson's pumpkin

And after much waiting and anticipation, the kids finally got to do this:

Welcome to Adobe!

Well, it's been a pretty stressful fall for us. Let me give you a run-down of the last couple of months and we'll see if you agree.

I went back to work after a 3 1/2 month maternity leave. This same week, Kaden started Kindergarten and Evan started daycare. Even though I've taken 2 other kids to daycare, it still stresses me out. My timing of going back to work couldn't have been any worse...2 weeks before our largest deadline...the 9/15 tax return filing deadline for corporations. By the way, if Evan had stayed in my stomach until he was supposed to, I would have returned to work on 9/16...but he obviously had other plans!

The day of the 9/15 filing deadline, I was at home and feeling good because I completed the few projects I had for the deadline (I begged my bosses to take it easy on me when I returned) and I got a text message from Ray saying that he was sitting in a company meeting where they announced that Adobe Systems Inc. (yes, as in Adobe Acrobat) was buying his company, Omniture. Needless to say, we were both shocked and he didn't know what that meant for his job. He'd had suspicions that something was going on because he was getting information requests that are usually related to an acquisition but he thought Omniture was buying some other company...boy, was he ever wrong! If you want more details, you can read the article below.

http://www.omniture.com/press/777

For the next 3 weeks, we had no idea whether he was going to keep his job or not and we talked about alternatives...the last one being him staying at home and me going to work full-time. It's not the best economy for trying to find a job right now so we knew that him trying to find a new job would be difficult. But, I have to say that we weren't ever really "freaked out" about the situation, which is surprising considering my tendency to worry about things and not deal well with uncertainty. Our prayers were answered when he found out the last week of October that his job was being retained. Whew! What a load off our shoulders and we're so grateful that he was able to stay, as a lot of his co-workers were let go. I think his department went from 23 people to 8 people so we feel extremely blessed. The decision as to whether he would stay or not was based on feedback from those he works with and I'm proud that he's done such a great job that people were able to provide positive feedback...enough to convince Adobe to keep him.

So, now Ray officially works for Adobe rather than Omniture and Omniture is no more. He's really excited about this opportunity and they do have an office in Seattle so we hope he can transfer to that office in the future. They have great benefits like tuition reimbursement, an employee stock purchase plan, health savings account benefits, daycare contributions, and others that I think will provide a lot of benefit for our family. The tuition reimbursement will be great so that Ray can get his Master's degree and we won't have to pay for it. They also got rid of their accrued vacation policy and employees just take vacation (with the approval of their manager) when they need it and it's not tracked. The company also has a mandatory shut down of business the week of the 4th of July and the week between Christmas and New Year's! I think he gets pretty good discounts on Adobe software products so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll see what he can do for you.

So, now you can see why the last couple of months have been a bit hectic but now that it's over, we feel very blessed and are able to breathe a bit easier these days and are excited to get ready for the holidays and upcoming vacation time to spend together.

Sweet Baby Evan

It's been a while since I updated our blog so keep checking back this week because I have a few posts ready to go. Evan is already 5 months (technically 5 1/2 months) old and while I'd love to say that he's growing up to fast...he's not but I do enjoy each day with him and his smile just melts my heart and is the best thing to see first thing in the morning, even at 5 or 6 a.m. He's so calm and sweet...we're noticing that he looks and acts a lot like Kaden. He just LOVES his brothers and smiles whenever he sees them. Kaden and Jackson just love him so much and it's so cute to hear Jackson say "How ya doin boy?" and pat him on the head...like he's a dog or something.

Evan is 20 lbs. right now (yes, I know...huge) and LOVES his bottles. We've started on some baby oatmeal but he's not really into it. My pediatrician told me that I can feed him whatever I want and that the old way of introducing rice/oatmeal, followed by vegetables, then fruits, and to feed the same flavor for 2-3 days in a row is no longer the case and studies have shown that kids actually have less food allergies when they get a variety and they don't tend to hate vegetables if they're not fed those first. So, we'll see how it goes but so far...Evan's not so excited about the baby food. He's a pretty good sleeper...a 1-1.5 hour nap in the morning, 2-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon, and goes to bed around 6:30 p.m. and wakes up anywhere between 5:30 and 7 a.m.

He recently had a VERY BAD case of eczema so he's lubed up with hydrocortisone all day, every day and it's finally getting under control. Before we got it under control, he was constantly scrathing at himself, especially his face, and would have new scratches on his face every morning. Hopefully, he'll outgrow it and very soon! He finally rolled from his back to his stomach last night but doesn't do it often. He has the cutest giggle and Kaden was so excited that he was able to make Evan giggle and laugh the other day...it was so cute!

Well, enjoy the pictures!

So happy but he doesn't know what's coming...

Yeah, not sure if I like that.

Happy, as usual


Sitting up in his Bumboo...Kaden & Jackson love sitting in it more than Evan!

Fall Firsts!

My baby started Kindergarten today! Ray took him this morning and when the teacher told the kids to turn around and wave good-bye to their parents, he was lost in the sea of overexcited parents so Ray didn't get to see him before he went inside. I picked him up afterwards and he was so excited because he got a Hostess cupcake with a small cutout taped on top that said "My first day of Kindergarten was a piece of cake." He was so excited and had a great day...he even remembered what they did that day which is more than I get after church on Sundays. To top off the big day, we picked up McDonald's for lunch as a special "First Day of School" lunch. Ray gave Kaden his first back-to-school blessing which his dad gave him each year before school started. He gave him a great blessing and I know that Kaden is going to have a great first year! His teacher's name is Mrs. McGarry and she's a Utah State University alumni (Go Aggies!) and this is her second year teaching at Altara. Kaden has a green folder that he brings home every night and his homework every night is to go through it with us and tell us what he did that day, and complete whatever she sends home. He is also encouraged to read for 15 minutes every night which we've been doing since he was 1 year old so that should be pretty easy to accomplish. He has 40 words that he has to memorize and recall at sight during the year and pass off to the teacher...basic reading words like and, for, I, said, his, her, etc. And each week they learn new letters and he has to bring words from magazines, newspapers, etc. that start with that letter. So, we'll be busy this year. I thought Kindergarten was just playing every day but he's really going to learn and his teacher said he'll be bringing home books to read during the year.

Kaden is going to Altara Elementary over on the east side of I-15 in Sandy...the school is one of the best and just happens to be about 4 blocks from our daycare providers house so she is kind enough to pick up him and one of the other daycare boys from school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. School starts at 8:15 a.m. and ends at 11:00 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays and ends at 10:15 a.m. on Fridays. Kyli forgive me for saying this, but I still don't understand why teachers need an early day every Friday and so many planning or "recess" days throughout the year, there's at least one each month! Don't teachers have all summer to plan? Sorry, Ky...you know how I feel, and no offense to any other teachers out there that read this.

Kaden in his new school clothes and shoes on his first day of Kindergarten

Of course, little brother Jackson had to share in the excitement of the day

What would the first day of Kindergarten be without something to do with Star Wars?

Ray took this at the school in front of the Kindergarten classrooms. I think 2022 will be here before we know it.

Kaden in front of his new school

Also, the Fall soccer season has started. Kaden is now in the U6 group and plays on a much bigger field with 4 against 4 rather than 3 against 3. He had his first game last Saturday and scored 3 goals! Way to go, Kaden! He is a lot better this fall than he was in the Spring, must be all that practicing we've been doing in the family room.

The summer is almost over but we're going to end the summer with a trip to the new splash park that opened this summer in Draper, Cowabunga Bay. Since the summer was a little bit on the boring side for the boys due to Evan's arrival, it's time to start doing some fun things again. Now that Evan is going to daycare, his daytime sleep is getting better and better and he's getting on a good schedule. His nighttime sleep has been really good for a long time and just gets better...he's now going to bed around 6:30 and wakes up for a feeding anytime between 4 and 6 a.m. and then goes back down until 7:30 or 8:00 a.m....I love that he's such a good night sleeper like Jackson was because no matter how stressful the day might be, I know that I can have a few moments of "me" time before bed when all the kids are asleep...life is once again getting back to the way I'm used to and function best with. Life is great and each day is a blessing!

Smile Baby!

I was finally able to capture Evan smiling...it was a chore but I did it. I was also able to make him giggle and laugh yesterday. It was totally out of the blue and unexpected but I can't even describe in words how cute it was. Now, if I can just get him to do it for Ray! Evan is doing great and has his first day of daycare on Monday so we'll see how it goes. He's still not sleeping very long during the day but it putting himself to sleep better and better. Once he's asleep, he only sleeps for anywhere from 30-60 minutes at a time. But, he's sleeping 9 hours for his first stretch at night and then has a bottle and sleeps for a couple more hours so I'm not going to complain about the days...he'll get it together soon.

Kaden has his Kindergarten assessment appointment on Monday morning and his first day of Kindergarten on Thursday. He's so excited...I hope he loves it. I'm sure once he realizes that it's really EVERY day, he might lose some of the excitement but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm now realizing that things won't be happening according to Ray and I's schedules, we now have a school schedule that we have to factor in to our mornings and weeks. He has so many days off here and there and for holidays, I hope I can keep track and not send him when he doesn't have school or keep him home when he does...it's so confusing! Anyway, stay tuned and I'll post some picture of his first day later this week.

Update

Just wanted to give everyone an update since it's been over a month since my last post. Kaden is getting excited to start Kindergarten in about 4 weeks. We don't yet know who his teacher is (we'll find out on the 19th) but he's pretty excited and we're going to be going school shopping in the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure how the first few weeks on the new schedule is going to go since he's in AM kindergarten so we'll have to get him up, feed him breakfast, and have him to school by 8:15 (and the school is about 20 minutes from our house) so we'll be getting up earlier than usual from now on. I'm probably not going to realize how easy I had it before he started school and now we're in the school system from now on!

Jackson is...well, what can I say...he's just Jackson. He's our little spitfire but he makes us laugh one minute and really pushes us to our limits the next. He hasn't had any "accidents" or injuries requiring medical attention for quite a while so we consider that an accomplishment. He is growing to love Evan more and more and is really showing interest in him and actually acknowledges him as his brother now so we're making progress. Oh, he did graduate from his race car toddler bed into a big boy bed so he's officially a big boy but we haven't dared try and tackle the potty training thing yet...maybe this fall/winter when he's closer to 3 years old. The one great thing is that he LOVES candy so we might have better luck potty training (bribing) him with candy than we did with Kaden.

Evan is over 2 1/2 months old but not quite 3 months yet (he'll be 3 months on August 15th). At his 2 year checkup he was 13+ pounds, in the 90th percentile so he's a big boy! He's got roles and roles of chub and his cheeks are really starting to fill out, just like my other two boys. He seems to be calming down a bit these days and is a great night sleeper but a terrible day sleeper. He's been sleeping about 6-8 hours at night but has a really hard time taking good naps by himself during the day so we usually take turns sleeping with him in the afternoons. He's really discovering his hands and loves to be talked to and smiled at and his smile back is so cute! It just melts my heart.

I will be going back to work at the end of the month and have mixed feelings. I'm finally now into an at-home routine so it will be an adjustment to get back into the work routine 3 days a week. I think it's especially going to be challenging to get 3 boys ready in the morning and also keep up with Kaden's kindergarten needs and activities but I'm sure we'll get into a good routine and just need to get to bed earlier. I'll be glad for the fall when the days get shorter so the kids can get to bed earlier.

Enjoy the latest pictures of our boys!